In his 1,000 games as an NHL referee, Don VanMassenhoven surely has never seen an odd stretch of play quite like this one.
For the Maple Leafs though, it was just another way to lose a hockey game in a season that is quickly leaking hope once again.
This time, it was the struggling Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins who found the Air Canada Centre a safe haven in a 4-1 that forced the Leafs to fall for the eight time in their past 10 games.
The latest punch to the gut was a bizarre sequence in the second period in which Sergei Gonchar scored a pair of second-period goals to break a 1-1 tie, starting with a goal that wasn’t, then was and in the process denied Toronto a penalty shot.
Bizarre is just another word for bad, however, as the Leafs current streak of ineptitude has undone the good of a recent 9-3-1 run and is starting to rival the team’s miserable start to the season.
“All of us, we started feeling good about ourselves and playing really good hockey as a team,” said Matt Stajan, who scored the Leafs lone goal last night. “I don’t think we ever imagined this.”
With Montreal earning a point for an overtime loss last night, the Leafs are now nine points out of a playoff spot with five teams between them and the Habs.
Hard to believe, isn’t it, that a win just 10 days earlier could have pulled them to with a point of the final spot in the Eastern Conference.
Few would have imagined the series that led to the latest loss, however, the Leafs’ third in a row.
It started with Gonchar’s first goal of the night, one that he didn’t think was in and challenged the case study knowledge of the officials, including VanMassenhoven, who was working his milestone game.
A blast from the point hit the post and then the back bar of the net but did so with such speed that none of the men in stripes saw it. As play continued, Leafs forward Alexei Ponikarovsky got loose on a breakaway and when he was hauled down by Gonchar, was awarded a penalty shot.
The subsequent video review showed that Gonchar’s shot clearly was a goal and since NHL rules don’t allow two scores on one play, the penalty shot was revoked.
Instead, Gonchar was assessed a two-minute hooking penalty. Once the Penguins killed that off, Gonchar skated inside the Leafs blueline, took a pass from Evgeni Malkin and fired a one-time past a helpless Gustavsson.
“It was kind of a game-changer for sure,” said Pens’ captain Sidney Crosby, who had a goal and an assist in another typically strong night against the Leafs. “We went from hitting the crossbar, we thought, to taking the lead.”
To their credit, the Leafs weren’t about to play the hard done by card, even with another tough to stomach defeat.
“He picked the top corner from the blueline on the power play,” Leafs defenceman Ian White said of Gonchar. “You can call it luck, but that’s a good goal. He has time to pick whichever corner he wants.”
rob.longley@sunmedia.ca
